The Night They Died
by chawk1993
Summary: *ONE SHOT* The night of Halloween 1981 was meant to be a family oriented event only it ends in the murders of James Potter and his wife Lily, leaving behind their infant son and a whole path of detruction and tragedy.


**A/N: **_Hey faithful readers! _I had to get this story out of my head. It just came naturally to me. Being a massive Harry Potter fan like all of you here, I have often wondered what really happened to James and Lily the night they were murdered by Voldemort. I had to research Lily and James' pleading to Voldemort so I copied and pasted those lined but the rest of the story I wrote. I couldn't find the classes Remus took while at Hogwarts so I decided to have him take Muggle Studies. I would like to thank the Harry Potter Lexicon for providing the timeline of the night James and Lily died. Enjoy!

**The Night they died**

It was evening at Godric's Hollow and Lily Potter was in the kitchen preparing dinner. Her son Harry was sitting in his highchair happily watching his mother cook. It was October 31. Halloween. Lily's husband, James was working late like normal.

"Hey Lily!" said two sudden voices.

Lily turned to see Remus Lupin and Sirius Black standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Harry squealed at the sounds of his 'uncles' voices.

"Hey Harry! Look at you! You look more like James every time we see you," Sirius cooed at his godson.

"Sit down. Sit down." Lily ushered to the two of the four marauders.

"Thanks, Lily. Hey where's Prongs?" Sirius asked as he and Remus sat down at the table on either side of Harry who was at the head of the table.

"He's working late again and he told me this morning before he left that we were to start without him," Lily said as she continued her cooking.

"Unca Padfoot, look!" Harry laughed holding up the drawing he had done earlier.

"Wow Harry! That is the best one you have done!" Sirius said with a smile.

Harry grinned before his mother put his food on the tray of his highchair.

"Sirius, can you feed Harry for me?"

"Sure thing!" Sirius lifted the spoon up and tried to get the food into Harry's little mouth but missed.

Harry laughed as the food from the spoon flew through the air and hit Remus in the face. Harry laughed again and clapped his little hands. Sirius laughed with him.

"Lily can I have a cloth?" Remus asked.

"Why what…?" Lily turned around from her cooking to see the food on Remus' face.

"Oh sorry Remus," she said as she quickly handed him a cloth to wipe his face.

"No need to apologize, Lily. It wasn't your fault." Remus said aiming a threatening glance at Sirius.

"What don't blame it on me," Sirius spat. "Harry must be showing signs that he is a wizard."

Remus kept quiet knowing that his old friend was right.

"Hey guys!"Came a voice in the doorway.

"Daddy!" yelled Harry.

"Hey mate," James said ruffling his son's hair as he entered.

"Hey Prongs," Remus and Sirius greeted.

"Moony. Padfoot," James said nodding in the direction of his 2 best friends.

"Hello dear," Lily said peering over her shoulder. "How was work?"

James went over and kissed his wife on the cheek. "Regular crap." He said as he looked over Lily's shoulder to see what she was cooking.

"Looks good Lily pad," he said.

At the table, Sirius and Remus rolled their eyes in disgust.

"Daddy," Harry called.

James turned and headed over to the table to see his son.

"Did Uncle Padfoot try to feed you again, did he?" James asked looking from Harry to Sirius.

"He is definitely a wizard Prongs," Remus said.

"What makes you say that?" James asked his friend.

Remus and Sirius looked at each other before Sirius spoke up.

"The spoon flew out of my hand and the food hit Remus in the face," Sirius held back a laugh knowing that James would hit him in the head if he said negative towards his family.

"Well at least we know he's not a squib," James said ushering Remus to move along a chair so he could sit near Harry.

"So very true," Sirius said in agreement.

"There's nothing wrong with our son being a squib," Lily said from the stove.

"Frank Longbottom's mother is beginning to think that her grandson is a squib," Sirius commented.

"That's Augusta talkin'," James said.

Silence suddenly fell upon the friends as they listened to the sound of Lily stirring the soup via magic. Finally, after 10 minutes of utter silence, Sirius finally spoke up.

"Hey Lily, I'm surprised that you aren't cooking the Muggle way," he smirked when Lily turned around.

"Just because my sister and parents are Muggles doesn't mean I have to act like them," Lily said sternly before turning back to her cooking.

Sirius raised his hands to defend himself. He then kept quiet. He loved Lily like the sister he never had. Remus felt the same way. They loved Lily's cooking and were around almost every night for dinner. Harry loved their visits. He loved Sirius most of all because of the birthday present he had received. Sirius had given him a toy broom stick that he was constantly riding around the house.

Lily often joked that Harry would become just as good Quidditch player as his father.

James laughed. "I wouldn't talk about Petunia in front of Lily if I was you," James warned.

"Why?" Sirius asked.

"We haven't always been close, Tuney and I," Lily said.

"Tuney?" Remus said in disbelief.

"Yeah. I had a nickname for her." Lily said shamefully. "She hated me because I was a witch and she wasn't. In her eyes, I'm nothing back a freak."

"You aren't a freak, Lil," Said Sirius kindly. "You are the most talented witch I know."

By this time, Sirius had risen from his seat and had his hand on Lily's shoulder.

"Thanks, Sirius." Lily said as Sirius pulled her into a hug.

James and Remus looked at each other before looking at the table.

"Dinner's up," Lily said pulling out of Sirius' hug. With a wave of her wand, the pot of soup and the other things cooking soared onto the table.

"Looks great dear," James said smiling at his wife.

Lily returned the smile and sat next to Sirius.

Dinner was full of conversation about the old times that were spent at Hogwarts and future plans like Harry getting a sibling and various other things that weren't ever going to happen after this night. Little did anyone know that this was the final night of life for James and Lily Potter.

"Hey remember when the broom cupboard down near the Quidditch Pitch caught fire and it took half the members of staff to put it out?" James asked.

"You claimed that was an accident," Lily said raising an eyebrow in the direction of her husband.

"It was. Kinda." James' face was littered with guilt.

Lily shook her and shoved more food into her mouth.

James finished feeding Harry and put him to bed.

At around 9 o'clock Remus and Sirius bid the Potters farewell.

"Thanks for dinner, Lily. It was great like always," Sirius said giving Lily a hug.

"You're very welcome, Sirius." Lily said pulling out of Sirius' hug.

Remus hugged Lily too and said the same thing Sirius had said. After shaking hands with James the two other Marauders disappeared into the evening.

As Lily turned to close door she felt a sudden chill as she stared out at the front gate. She stood there for a moment looking at a dark hooded figure standing there watching her.

"Lily?" James came to his wife's side and felt the same chill as she did.

The figure pointed what looked like a wand at the lock on the gate and drew closer to the stairs. James sensed it wasn't a friend but the one person they had been hiding from. Voldemort. As the figure drew closer, James knew that something wasn't right.

"Get inside," James instructed of Lily.

Lily obeyed and went inside before getting one last glimpse at the approaching figure.

Footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs. James started to panic.

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! I'll try to hold him off! Just go!"he ordered of Lily as she ran towards stairs.

There was a blast of light as Voldemort tore the door from its hinges with magic. James attempted to duel him but was killed outright.

"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort said pointing his wand directly at James.

James' body fell to the floor with a bang. Voldemort smiled as he nudged James' lifeless body to make sure that he was dead.

The heartless villain then trudged up the stairs to the nursery where Lily cowered with Harry in her arms. She had locked the door but she knew that it wouldn't keep Voldemort out. Using his wand, Voldemort blew the door of Harry's nursery open Lily held Harry tightly, shielding him with her arms.

"Not Harry! Please, no, not Harry! I'll do anything!" Lily begged.

"Stand aside you silly girl … stand aside now." Voldemort hissed.

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead," Lily begged again this time her voice broke as she sobbed for mercy from the Dark Lord. "Not Harry! Please … have mercy … have mercy… "

"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort cried pointing his wand at Lily.

Lily who had placed Harry on the floor a few seconds before fell to the floor dead in front of her son.

Voldemort nudged Lily's body with his foot to make sure she was dead the same way he had nudged James' lifeless body. He then turned to the infant sitting behind his mother's body. Pointing his wand at Harry, he uttered the words that would leave him cursed without a body for 13 years.

"Avada Kedavra!" The spell rebounded from Voldemort's wand leaving the infant boy with a lightning scar shaped scar on his forehead.

Voldemort's body was destroyed. It had turned to dust.

Sirius sat in an armchair in 12 Grimmauld Place reading the Daily Prophet when he suddenly felt that something amongst the surviving members of the Order of the Phoenix was seriously wrong.

"Sirius? What's wrong?" asked his favourite cousin Andromeda Tonks who had been reading a letter from her daughter Nymphadora who was studying to become an Auror.

"Something isn't right, Andromeda." He said getting up from his chair and went over to the mantel piece above the fireplace to the odd clock that showed the faces of the members of the Order.

Unlike the one that the Weasley family had in their procession, this clock had the ability to make the arm of a particular person would disappear when a member of the Order was killed or had gone missing presumed dead or had simply turned against the Order and turned into Death Eaters

Sirius watched in horror as two of the hands disappeared. Lily and James were dead. Not being able to accept the fact that his best friend was dead, he hurried out of the house and summoned his motorcycle. Into the night he rode through the skies to Godric's Hollow where he met Hagrid and Remus.

"Hagrid! Remus! What are you both doing here?" Sirius asked.

"Dumbledore sent me to pick up Harry." Hagrid said sadly.

"Where's he going?" Sirius asked.

"To his aunt an' uncle's in the Muggle world," Hagrid said.

""What? No! James and Lily wouldn't have wanted Harry to go to them. They said that if anything were to happen to them, I would be the one to raise Harry." Sirius wanted to so desperately raise Harry.

Hagrid lowered his head sadly.

"Dumbledore insisted that Harry must go to his only survivin' Muggle relatives in order to ward away any other dangers that Harry might be prone to." Hagrid concluded.

Sirius didn't want Harry to be taken away from him so that he would never see him again but he knew Hagrid was right.

"Let's go see how bad the destruction is," Remus said walking forwards.

Hagrid and Sirius followed leaving the motorcycle outside. They walked up the stairs and stopped almost immediately when they saw James' body laying on the ground just inside the door.

Sirius sank to the ground crotched over the body of his best friend. He wanted to cry out but his cries where constricted in his throat.

"We need to move the body," Remus said trying to comfort Sirius.

"Allow me," Hagrid said picking up James' body. He picked the body nearby but away from the stairs so they could get to the stairs.

"This makes no sense," Sirius said boldly "The killing curse kills. It doesn't create destruction."

"By the looks of things there was a massive struggle," Remus said looking around the havoc.

The trio trudged up the stairs and toward the nursery where they found Harry asleep beside his mother's body. Sirius went over not disturbing the crime scene and picked up the sleeping Harry.

"Unca Padfoot?" Harry asked sleepily.

"Yes, Harry it's me," Sirius said quietly.

"What happened to Mummy and Daddy?" Harry asked.

Sirius wanted to tell him that his parents were dead but he couldn't find it in his heart to do it. Harry didn't ask again. He snuggled up in Sirius' arms and fell asleep again.

Outside Muggle Police were surrounding the semi destroyed house.

"The Muggle Police are here," Remus whispered to Hagrid and Sirius.

"What do we do?" Sirius asked. He had only encountered a Muggle Policeman once and that was a couple of years earlier.

"We have to tell 'em what happened," Hagrid said.

"And get arrested for being at a crime scene? I don't think so!" Sirius hissed.

"Shh! You'll wake Harry," Hagrid said shushing Sirius.

"More or less Hagrid's right, Sirius," Remus said agreeing with Hagrid.

Sirius rolled his eyes and handed Harry to Hagrid.

"We need to make a statement and tell them exactly what we know without revealing what we are," Remus said. He was the only one of the Marauders to do Muggle Studies though he never told the others knowing that he would have been made fun of.

Going down stairs, Hagrid, Remus and Sirius were greeted by a swarm of Muggle policemen.

"Hello. Hello. Hello," said one of the policemen. "What do we have here?"

"We did not murder Lily and James Potter. We have merely come to retrieve their infant son to take him to his aunt and uncle's." Remus said before Sirius could open his mouth to speak.

"You know the deceased?" asked another policeman.

"Yes. We are friends of the deceased," Sirius said.

"Did the deceased know their murderer?" asked yet another policeman.

"Yes. They did," Hagrid said. "We all did."

"Can you tell us who murdered them," asked the first policemen.

Sirius, Hagrid and Remus looked at each other in horror. They hadn't expected the Muggles to ask this sort of question.

"We um…" Sirius started to say before catching a glimpse of something outside across the road. He started to walk toward the door with the Police asking him to come back and tell them who they thought had killed James and Lily.

As he drew closer he could make out the person. It was the traitor. A Marauder. Peter Pettigrew.

Sirius bolted down the stairs with Remus at his heels. Hagrid hurried after them and grabbed them both by their shirt collars with one hand while he held Harry with the other.

"He betrayed them!" the duo screamed.

Sirius turned to Hagrid and lightly ruffled his godson's hair.

"We will meet again Harry. Someday." He then broke free of Hagrid's grasp and ran after Pettigrew with Remus at his heels.

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